By Hand: Goldie in the Archive

Charles Frederick Goldie (1870–1947) is one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most celebrated painters. He is best known for his virtuoso portraits of Māori – a number of which are currently on display in the exhibition He Iwi Rangatira in the Auburn Gallery on Level 1.

Born in Auckland, Goldie showed a precocious talent for drawing and was sent to Paris in 1892 for his artistic training. Returning home in 1898 he set up a studio on Shortland Street where he painted many of his regular sitters. Eventually marrying in 1920, his wife Olive's photograph album shows their wonderful garden on the shores of Lake Pupuke on Auckland's North Shore.

In the items on display from the Archive, Goldie's hand is evident in his detailed letters, palette, sketchbooks, careful notes, and in his library of books each of which he compulsively signed hundreds of times.